Daven had just finished stuffing his own five coins inside his pocket when he suddenly looked up and snorted. Alex followed his eyes to a young wiry fellow with long blond hair walking down the stairs. He had a tired look to him, pale with dark circles around his eyes, though his clothes were different from the folk around Riverbend. Finer, in a way.

“Who’s that?”

“What?” Daven turned to him, then back at the guy. “Oh him? He was in the caravan with us. Some city boy that goes around calling himself an explorer or sumthin’. Talked like a magpie when he got on with us back at Holdensfor. Tall tales too.” The archer snorted again, shook his head and focused down on his stew—his second bowl. “Then he ate something rotten and he was sick the whole way over, curled up on himself like a kitten in one of the carts,” he said between spoonfuls.

Alex followed as the young man made his way up to the bar. “An explorer?” he repeated, almost as if to himself. That could work for some news. “Should I invite him to eat with us? I’ve been too long in the bush. Wouldn’t mind a few stories of the wider world.”

“Please don’t,” Diana said quickly, shooting him an annoyed look. “He’s a smarmy little shit.”

“Smarmy’s right,” Daven echoed.

Alex chuckled good-naturedly. “C’mon, he can’t be that bad.” He looked around for allies, but at some point Cedric had gotten up and was half-way to another table after Lanna, and even Valerian nodded his agreement.

He clicked his tongue. “Don’t be jerks now. Hey man! Here!” he called after the explorer, who by now had a pail of mug in one hand.

“Alex,” Diana hissed under her breath.

Alex ignored her, and Daven’s kick on the leg beneath the table. The explorer looked around for a second before he noticed Alex and the crew surrounded by the patrons. He raised his well-manicured eyebrows and pointed at himself questioningly.

“That’s right.” Alex tried for his best smile. “Why don’t you sit with us, eh? My friends tell me you’re an explorer, and I wouldn’t mind hearing some stories.”

The word explorer seemed to jolt the crowd into another bout of excitement. Jerom the thatcher nudged himself closer to their table, and the two pretty girls from before were suddenly divided in their interest between the gallant chasers and this newcomer.

Alex couldn’t blame them. He doubted there had ever been a more exciting weekend in the village with the Festival coinciding with the coming of chasers and merchants and explorers.

The confused look on the young man’s face was soon replaced by a self-satisfied smirk. He walked up to their table skirting the villagers, all swagger but with none of the grace someone like Cedric had.

“Finally someone who knows good company when he sees it,” he said with a thin voice.

Across the table, Diana rolled her eyes until all you could see were the whites, but Alex kept a smile firmly on his face. He moved to make space on the bench for the man, elbowing Daven when he refused to slide further down. “Come, my friend, tell us about your adventures. I’m Alex, by the way, and these are Diana, Daven, and Valerian.”

“Indeed,” he said, nose up in the air. “We’ve met previously, while I was… indisposed.”

Diana hummed a little too loud, and Daven had to hide his laugh under a fit of coughing. The man frowned, but he seemed too uncomfortable with the topic to try to bring it about in front of so many people.

“Of course, of course, but I myself haven’t had the pleasure yet,” Alex quickly put in. “You see, I’ve been wandering around for a bit too long, and I have to admit I’m a bit—”

“Ah, yes, yes,” the explorer cut in, the smile on his face decidedly smarmy now. “You’re sore out of entertainment, no? As I’m sure are the good people of Riverbend.” His voice turned loud now, reaching across the common room. “Well, the great adventurer Kavi Longstride can certainly spice up your night. I can tell you about the time I almost married a princess in one of my voyages through the Twin Queendoms, or when I escaped from the dastardly syndicates that crawl through the underbelly of the Republics, or perhaps—”

“Ahum,” Alex cleared his throat. He didn’t know much about queendoms and syndicates, but this Kavi fellow didn’t look a day older than twenty. He very much doubted he’d done even half the things we claimed.

“I was thinking more about, you know, news about the land,” he said, smiling awkwardly.

One of the girls, Amelle, he reckoned her name was, glared balefully at him for stopping Kavi’s rant.

He let it slide off him easily. Alex wasn’t after the stupid fancies of a fake explorer. “Anything on the republics, perhaps? Really, anything going on that a traveling man must know, where to go and where to avoid and such things.”

“Tsk, fine.” Kavi the explorer huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “If you must know, I’ve been on the road for a while myself but… there are rumors of bandits up north where I’m headed, on the road to the colorful city.” He drew himself up in front of the crowd. “Not that I’m afraid, of course. I’ve dealt with worse than bandits.”

There were murmurs among the villagers. Some worried about the bandits coming down south further enough to bring trouble to the village, which got others to assert with complete certainty it would not come to that, as Sorun was too far away, beyond the forest and the mountains.

Alex just saved the name of this colorful city for later and tried to spur the explorer on. “Anything else?”

Kavi shrugged. “The usual,” he said. “The politicos of the republics scheme. The twin queens plot another of their wars. Corsairs prowl the Great Lakes unopposed, and I hear the Ink-islanders have grown bold as of lately, raiding all the way down the western coast of the Continent.”

His words sounded like a script he’d repeated many times over, and Alex sighed in disappointment, looking down at his near empty bowl. A lot of names, but not a lot that could help him personally. He picked at the remains with his spoon.

“Oh, but get this.” Kavi suddenly leaned forward on the table as if to tell a secret, though his voice remained loud enough everyone could hear. “There’s been some tribal unrest near the borders of the Second’s Kingdom lately, and some say the old man himself was spotted in the fight.”

The word Second came like a punch to the gut. Alex felt the air inside him leave in a single breath. This is it. He turned to Kavi, intent on drilling him with questions. But before he could ask anything, and perhaps, thankfully, he noticed the whole common room had gotten silent. He could almost hear the heartbeat of the people closest to him.

Then wood scraped loudly on wood. Valerian had stood up, dragging the bench back with him. The paladin’s jaw was locked tight as he loomed over the table like an obelisk. No one spoke a word. The quiet added a menacing quality to him. As if there was an expectation of terrible violence in the air. Alex felt the hairs on his arms prickle.

That only lasted for a moment, then the paladin turned on his heels and left for the stairs without a parting comment.

Valerian’s exit served like a bath of cold over the whole inn. People edged away from their table—from Kavi. Alex heard more than a few curses—even a ‘First protect us’ from the thatcher Jerome—and even Daven’s face looked pinched like he’d swallowed a lemon.

“What?” Kavi asked no one in particular. “He’s not going to jump out of the shadows, people.” He scoffed. “Typical villagers, I say. Don’t tell me you’re all so superstitious to the point that even the mere mention of the Second will—”

“Enough!” That was Orson all the way from the bar. His face was thunderous, white mustache bristling on his upper lip. “I will hear no more of that name being spoken in my inn. Enough, already. If the Festival wasn’t tomorrow, I would chase you out my doors. Out of my village!”

Kavi heard it all with gritted teeth. He looked around the common room, to the patrons, only to be confronted with weary looks and downturned eyes.

He pushed off the table. “Whatever,” Kavi said sullenly. “I’ll be staying in my room, then. Until the caravan leaves. Bunch of country freaks,” he muttered the last words as he moved toward the stairs.

Any excitement left for the voluntary pruning of the dungeon had died with the mention of the Second, and the villagers soon trickled out of the inn one by one. Cedric made his own exit quickly enough, gracing them with an awkward smile before he went upstairs.

In the end, only Alex and the siblings remained in the common room, Daven finishing his bowl and Diana drinking from a mug. He would’ve left too, but Alex felt glued to his seat. Like his legs didn’t work.

No, he could walk if he wanted to. He just… didn’t. Why would he? It all felt as if any decision he made would be the wrong one. As if there was nowhere to go from here.

Diana broke the silence. “I did tell you not to call him over,” she said, smiling impishly over her ale. That got another snort out of her brother.

Alex sighed, and he laid his head over his arm on the table. “You sure did.”

He couldn’t bring himself to see the humor in it though. After all, for someone who was supposed to be the Second, things had just gotten even more complicated.